Joshua’s Nursery

So the nursery is finished for the most part, and what a relief it is to have a place for Joshua. If he decides to come early (please, no), he has a place to sleep. Yay! OK so this is what his room looked like when it was our office:

Then we had a garage sale, started moving things around, and I wasn’t cleaning as I went. This was the office at it’s worst, after we’d moved out one desk, one computer, moved the chest into the closet (which I had emptied of plastic shelving and all my cake pans) and put the new one in its place. And let some fur & dust settle, laundry pile, and randomness build up on my desk. I see an oversized spool of white curling ribbon on it! What in the world? lol

It took us a month to find a new home for everything in the office and get all the clutter put away, but we got it done in time for Labor Day weekend, when our friends came over to start painting. Here’s Jessie’s best friend (Momma Donna’s dog), Doc, letting us know the room is ready!

This is a photo of the women who did pretty much everything for us. They’re standing in the almost-finished nursery but I want to share the picture now rather than at the end, so I can introduce them. You already know Momma Donna, and she’s on the right. Her sister, Connie, is on the left, and our mutual friend, Stephanie, is in the middle. Stephanie also used to take her dog to Donna’s doggy daycare at the same time we took Jessie and we’ve been friends ever since. You can meet her Jenny (RIP sweet girl) and Miss Weenie in this post.

Before I go any further, I just want to say that Donna is the reason the nursery happened. We bought the bedding and the paint, and once she knew what theme we were going with, she bought everything else (valences, lamp, fabric for the curtain, new hardware for the chest in the closet, etc, etc, even the paint rollers and pans. Not to mention she bought all the furniture a month before painting, to boot!). She’s the one who told her sister about wanting to do the nursery and got her so excited that Connie asked if she could help, despite not even knowing us. She also told Stephanie, who was already wanting to help and already buying baby clothes and maternity clothes, so she was rearing to go for this project too. All I have to say is, God bless these wonderful women, and our fur babies for bringing us together!

They arrived a little before noon and I got to chat with them just a bit before leaving for work. When I got home after 9 PM, they were still hard at work and didn’t leave until probably 11 pm. They had gone shopping for several hours after patching the holes in the walls. They bought all kinds of stuff for the nursery while they were gone, most of it I had no clue Donna was going to do, so they didn’t start painting until 6:30 pm. It was a really long and hard day for all of them, even Stephanie who’s a lot younger, even younger than me. They were all laughing about how crippled they were the next day from all the bending, squatting, stepping up and down the step stool, etc. I just…love them. Working so hard and laughing about how much it hurt. Wow.

We thought since the closet would be covered by a curtain that it didn’t need to be painted. Well Connie took it upon herself to make the whole room truly fantastic and thought painting inside the closet, and also painting the white chest, was necessary. I’m so glad, because it turned out so nice!

Donna and Connie came back the next day to shampoo the carpet (our shampooer broke so it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do it–it was pretty awful) and put valences up over the windows and the closet. The next day when the carpet was dry, Dennis set up the crib, changing table, and glider, with a little help from me.

He’s so sexy. :)

All three women returned on Labor Day to finish things up. Donna had a few surprises planned and they shut us out of the nursery so we couldn’t see what they were doing. We grilled some burgers, and I whipped up my favorite potato salad and some Carolina Coleslaw, but before we ate, it was time for the big reveal. This is what it looked like when we walked in.

I started crying. Seriously, go back to the pictures of this room when it was a messy office and I think you’ll start crying too. What a transformation! It is just beautiful! They’ve since returned to put the shelves that used to be on the left wall on the right wall, and Connie sewed a cover for the ottoman (which is why it’s missing in the above photo) to keep it from getting dirty, so this is what it looks like now.

Connie sewed the curtains for us! She picked out the black and white gingham fabric to match the bedding and valences during their shopping trip, then sewed them, then had to take them back home to re-hem them because they’d mis-measured the closet and they were too long. It’s hard to believe someone would be willing to do so much for people she just met…but I’m so grateful.

The closet was Connie’s project and she did the chest by herself, including putting new hardware on. It’s gawgeous!

On top are the baby cards we’ve gotten so far, which eventually will make their way into an album. The black and white ones are from Joshua (OK, they’re from a mysterious loved one that signs his name for him-lol) and “Mommie and Daddie Miller” get one every month. I love them!

And look, Joshua even has a few outfits already hanging! The one in front his Grandma Miller just brought when she came for the 3D sonogram. So our little monkey now has two little monkey outfits. :)

Donna even bought a new hamper for Joshua. They measured the closet before they went shopping so they could get one that fit and Stephanie measured all the hampers while Donna compared the measurements to the space we had and they finally settled on this one. Fits perfect, and the black totally goes with the nursery.

This is freaky, but Donna bought the changing pad cover from Walmart and it ended up exactly matching the blue in the bedding and valences, and is even the same soft, fuzzy fabric! And the bedding, etc, is from Target so it’s doubly crazy that it’s a perfect match. She bought a second one that Connie used to sew the cover for the ottoman. So clever.

Now this is really crazy. Connie just so happened to have this antique 1970 talking Cat in the Hat toy and hadn’t been able to sell it because she couldn’t find a buyer willing to pay what it was worth ($300). When she found out our theme was Dr. Seuss/Cat in the Hat, she decided she would rather give it to us than sell it for less than it was worth to someone on eBay. Wow! And she even had the talker thing fixed so he still talks, after 43 years, when you pull his cord. :)

We have more books in storage to put on this shelf, but this set is the first we’ve added since we just got them in the mail from Erin! Thanks Erin! They are so perfect!

Donna also got this matching clock and vinyl decals to put all over the room. They can be moved and restuck, which is nice if we want to put up some artwork or hang pictures. I like that the decals have characters from many Seuss books, not just Cat in the Hat.

Doc says, “This room rocks!”

Thanks to these women, the nursery is more beautiful than it ever would have been if left up to us. There would be nothing wrong with a hodge-podge nursery made up of Craigslist furniture and without a theme at all – that’s exactly what we would have done and I would have been proud of it and happy with it. But I can’t help but be thrilled to have this beautiful, perfect nursery for our perfect baby! Forever thankful!

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About Veronica

I have a kitchen addiction and love to collect & share recipes. My passion is baking but I love to cook as well. The only thing I don't like to do in the kitchen is wash dishes, but my husband generally does them for me in exchange for his dinner.

oh, that is so incredible – It’s so sweet to see that so much love has been put into the transformation, what a lucky little babbit you have!

Thank you so much for sharing the joy of your lovely nursery with everyone, and just imagine, maybe one day little Joshua will look back at these photos with you and see how much he was loved even before he was born :)

So funny you said that b/c I was worried at the 3D sonogram they might say we were having a girl. (Funny how I said worried when I wanted a girl for so long, but now I really want a boy and would be kinda sad at first if it was a girl!) And I’m the same as you, I was not going to change the nursery if he was a she – I think it’s pretty neutral even with the blue. Thankfully she confirmed we’re having a boy so if he turns out to be a girl after two sonograms showing boy parts it’s going to be wild!

You are truly blessed V to have these women in your life – even if one of them is a new friend! Joshua is going to be having a whole lot of extended family – love it, and I am so glad you have Momma Donna! :D

HOOOWW EXCITING! I am so excited myself…I can’t begin to imagine YOUR excitement and thrill of seeing the transformation of this special baby room. May God bless the work of those dear ladies hands…you are loved much Mommy V! Thanks for sharing…love the lamp and everything else…just adorable!!

Goose bumps, how WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL it turned out!
Big Applause to Momma Donna and her friend Connie for the EXCELLENT job.
Truly Amazing Everything, and as you said….The room rocks!
Baby Joshua, you are a lucky guy!

HI, It’s amazing, I love it! You and your husband are going to have so many beautiful memories in the room and the rocker. My sons are 12 and 8 and I still love sitting in my glider reading and thinking about the feedings/readings and snuggling we did in our rocker. Tell the ladies how impressed I am, such good hearts. Blessings to all of you, Take care, Maria Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:00:35 +0000 To: manderzunas@hotmail.com

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I’m OBSESSED with the nursery. That could be my room :) Love the colorful valences hanging above the windows! LOVE the crib and bedding! Love the clock! Love the lamp! LOVE the closet, dresser, and curtains hiding it! Love the talking Cat in the Hat toy!! Wow, she helped with the nursery AND gave you that $300 toy… what an amazing woman! All of them are amazing for offering to help and doing such a great job at it. I don’t think I could have done any of that. Love the decals! Love the entire transformation. What a beautiful room for baby Joshua… he’ll love it :) How did you come up with the theme? Because I adore it.

You make me smile. :) I feel the same way! I just sit in there just to be in the room. I’ve been folding laundry while sitting in the chair, and bringing my laptop in there. Oh and I came up with the theme b/c the Dr. Seuss bedding was my favorite bedding set that I found. I knew Donna was waiting for me to pick the bedding b/c she wanted to paint the room to match, so I hurried up and picked it and then she went to town buying things to match.